The Right Stuff

Street battles rage in the Middle East, and elsewhere around the planet, movements flash and form through the power and immediacy of the information highway. The ability of the Internet to rally political forces and circumvent censorship has been a major theme in recent years.

In 2009, the French Constitutional Council went so far as to declare that the Internet is a “fundamental human right” and “an essential tool for the liberty of communication and expression” [1]. In a 2010 poll conducted by the BBC [2] nearly 4 out of 5 people in 26 countries agreed that the Internet is a “human right.” Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union told the BBC, “The Internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created.”

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